Timothy Williams, best known as the pitchman for travel site "Trivago," was arrested this week after Houston police say they found him passed out behind the wheel of a car in a moving lane of traffic.

"He was passed out with his foot on the brake in a moving lane of traffic," said Houston Police spokeswoman Jodi Silva.

Police got the call Wednesday afternoon.

Williams failed a field sobriety test and submitted to a blood drawer, she said.

He was charged with misdemeanor driving while intoxicated and his bail was set at $100.

When asked about Williams' arrest, a Trivago spokesperson told CNN in a statement:

"At this stage, we do not have the full details of the situation, but we want to make clear that Trivago treats such incidents very seriously and strongly condemns drinking and driving which poses a risk to others and goes against the Trivago culture."

CNN has has also reached out to Tim Williams and is waiting on a response.

Williams has had acting roles on "Cosby Show" and "Law and Order."

But he shot to fame as the rough-and-tumble pitchman for "Trivago."

In later ads, he came across as more polished -- his hair nicely tousled and a fashionable touch of facial stubble.

(SEOUL, South Korea) — South Korean police on Thursday arrested K-pop singer Jung Joon-young over allegations that he illegally shared sexually explicit videos of women taken without their knowledge or consent.

The Seoul Central District Court issued an arrest warrant for Jung hours after he appeared at a hearing and apologized to the victims and to "everyone who has showed affection for me."

He was later escorted to a police station in downtown Seoul in handcuffs.

People involved in scandals in South Korea often issue public apologies even as they maintain their innocence.

Jung was first questioned by police last week about allegations that he secretly filmed his sexual encounters and shared them in private group chats with his friends.

Police are also investigating another K-pop star, Seungri, who soared to international stardom as a member of the group Big Bang, over suspicions that he attempted to arrange unlawful sexual services for his business investors.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency requested an arrest warrant for Jung on Monday through state prosecutors.

The scandal has caused an uproar in South Korea, where women are increasingly speaking out against what they describe as a culture of misogyny with the rampant spread of intimate photos and videos taken by hidden cameras, which they say have women living in constant anxiety and distress.

Police said a millionaire’s murder was a robbery. The truth led to an international hunt for ‘The Black Widow.’

by Kyle Swenson

A figure slinks out of the late-night shadows, stepping onto the cobblestone streets of Old San Juan, the historic district of the Puerto Rican capital city.

In the orange glow falling from nearby street lamps, a long knife flashes from his hand.

The figure jams the blade into Adam Anhang, a 32-year-old Canadian real estate developer and recent transplant to the island.

As the vicious attack continues — the figure stabs Anhang again and again before crashing a loose cobblestone over his head — Anhang manages to call out to his nearby wife, Aurea Vazquez Rijos, a former Puerto Rican beauty queen.

“Run baby, run!” Anhang shouts, law enforcement would later say.

When San Juan authorities eventually rushed onto the scene on Sept. 22, 2005, Vazquez Rijos was loaded into an ambulance with cuts and bruises.

Anhang, however, was already dead.

Blood was spilling across the island that year.

In 2005, Puerto Rico notched 766 homicides, a murder rate that was three times higher than New York, NBC’s “Dateline” reported in 2008.

Anhang’s death was originally thought to have been another part of this violent wave, a robbery gone bad — until the victim’s family realized the young man’s money was still on his body.

The curtain was only rising on a saga that would play out across the globe for more than a decade.

An innocent man would be arrested and convicted of the murder. Private investigators would snoop through European cities.

The complex red tape of international extradition law would cause endless delays.

And a clever trap would be sprung by authorities, leading to more red tape and court dates and waiting.

But finally, the contorted criminal case stemming from Anhang’s death came to an end last week.

On Friday, Vazquez Rijos, 38, her sister, Marcia Vazquez Rijos, and an ex-boyfriend, Jose Ferrer Sosa, were all sentenced to life in prison for their part in a complex murder-for-hire plot, the Associated Press reported.

According to federal prosecutors, Vazquez Rijos plotted her husband’s death in a greedy gambit to grab his millions.

But it was Vazquez Rijos’s globe-trotting exploits after her husband’s murder — and the Anhang family’s tireless pursuit — that earned the case international attention.

The European press dramatically dubbed her “The Black Widow.”

Years after the murder, her pregnancies would take on critical legal importance for judges weighing international treaties.

But in the beginning, a surprise pregnancy is what threw Vazquez Rijos told Anhang together.

Anhang had come to Puerto Rico after a remarkably successful career.

The son of an attorney in Winnipeg, Anhang had always seemed pointed toward the business world — he showed up to his first day of kindergarten with a briefcase, “just like his dad,” his mother, Barbara Anhang, told “Dateline” in 2008.

“I never remember him as a little boy,” his father, Abe Anhang, said in the same interview.

“He was a little man.”

Anhang graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.

He found early success running a number of start-ups, including a gambling software company.

With the financial windfall from those ventures, he moved to Puerto Rico in 2004 with an eye toward developing condo and hotel projects on the island, according to Global News.

Early in his time on the island, Anhang met Vazquez Rijos, a widow and former beauty contestant who had once been crowned Miss Puerto Rico Petite, Global News reported.

The two quickly became an item, moving in together in late 2004.

Then, in early 2005, Vazquez Rijos hit Anhang with a surprise: she was expecting a child.

A devout Catholic, she and her family reportedly told her boyfriend that marriage was the only option.

Anhang and Vazquez Rijos wed in a small ceremony that March. Anhang did not even tell his family up north he was getting married.

Soon after, Anhang learned there was no pregnancy.

He felt the baby had been a ploy to force a wedding.

“He told me that there was no baby and that he felt like he’d fallen for the oldest trick in the book,” a friend told “Dateline.”

Anhang made a go at his new union. He reportedly bought Vazquez Rijos a nightclub to run called the Pink Skirt.

But the relationship nose-dived within a few months.

Anhang told his wife he wanted a divorce.

She reportedly resisted a split.

Anhang began to worry for his safety, and even hired a bodyguard.

“Adam had expressed that he had fear of her underworld knowledge,” another friend told “Dateline.”

“I guess she had these shady characters that are in some way drug related that would come down to her business.”

Those tensions appeared to lift on Sept. 22, 2005, when Vazquez Rijos asked Anhang to dinner to finalize a divorce settlement.

He went alone — without his bodyguard — and dined with his wife at a restaurant in Old San Juan. As the couple strolled the cobblestone streets, the killer pounced.

Following the murder, Anhang’s father traveled to the island.

Three weeks after the death, police arrested a 22-year-old restaurant dishwasher named Jonathan Roman Rivera who matched an eyewitness description of the attacker, the National Post reported at the time.

Two years later, Roman Rivera was convicted of Anhang’s death and sentenced to 105 years in prison.

But as Anhang’s family began to learn more details about their son’s crashing marriage, they were convinced the man implicated by Puerto Rican authorities was innocent.

“This young man had no reason to do what he did. She had every motive in the world.”

Money was that motive, the family felt.

Under the terms of the couple’s prenuptial agreement — which valued Anhang’s wealth at more than $24 million — Vazquez Rijos was entitled to a maximum $360,000 in a settlement, the National Post reported.

As a grieving widow, however, she had a better claim, and six months after the murder, Vazquez Rijos sued the Anhang family for $8 million of the estate, “Dateline” reported.

After Roman Rivera’s conviction, Anhang’s father approached the FBI with his doubts.

The agency dispatched a team of agents to reexamine the crime, and eventually federal authorities found witnesses placing Alex “El Loco” Pabon Colon at the scene.

A dealer who reportedly sold drugs to customers at the Pink Skirt, he confessed that he had killed Anhang after Vazquez Rijos agreed to pay him $3 million.

The payment never materialized after the crime. He pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

A federal grand jury indicted Vazquez Rijos for orchestrating Anhang’s death in 2008. Roman Rivera was exonerated and freed.

But by then, Vazquez Rijos had split.

Unwilling to let their son’s killer slip away, the Anhangs hired a private investigator, who tracked Vazquez Rijos to Florence.

The destination was likely not an accident.

The Italian government will not extradite fugitives to the United States who are facing the death penalty.

Vazquez Rijos lived openly in the European city as a tour guide.

“She had access to three or four identity cards, she was using three or four different names, different hairstyles, different hair colorings,” Abe Anhang told Global News.

The Anhangs paid a private investigator nearly $1,000 a day to track her movements.

From these reports, the family learned Vazquez Rijos was attempting to keep herself farther outside the reach of U.S. law.

Safe for the time being, she needed to obtain permanent residency to completely protect herself.

In 2008, Vazquez Rijos became romantically involved with an Italian air-conditioning contractor and gave birth to twin daughters.

As the mother of Italian citizens, she was even less likely to face extradition, Global News reported.

American authorities went to unique lengths to finally grab the wanted woman in 2013.

That year, American and Spanish law enforcement, posing as members of a fictitious Spanish travel agency, contacted Vazquez Rijos with a job offer in Madrid.

On June 30, 2013, she boarded a plane for Spain.

At the Madrid airport, while she waited for her luggage, Interpol agents took her into custody.

(FULTON, Mo.) — Two people have pleaded guilty to misdemeanors in the death of a developmentally disabled Missouri man whose body was found encased in concrete after he was reported missing from a supported living home.

KMIZ reports Anthony R.K. Flores and Shaina Osborne pleaded guilty Monday to making a false report in the death of 61-year-old Carl DeBrodie.

DeBrodie's body was discovered in a storage unit in April 2017.

Investigators believe he went missing months before his disappearance from the Second Chance home in Fulton was reported.

Flores was sentenced to eight months in jail.

Osborne was sentenced to 30 days in jail that was suspended while she serves two years of probation.

Flores' father, Anthony R. Flores, and Sherry Paulo, who operated the Second Chance home, are charged with involuntary manslaughter.

Cesar Sayoc, the Florida man who pleaded guilty to mailing 16 package bombs to critics of puppetine, is due back in federal court in Manhattan Monday after he claimed certain things he said at his plea hearing were inaccurate.

In a handwritten letter to Judge Jed Rakoff, Sayoc said “extreme emotional circumstances” influenced his answer when asked whether he knew his devices could harm.

During the March hearing Sayoc said he made devices “designed to look like pipe bombs” and “with the intent to injure” but his letter to the court said "the intention was only to intimidate and scare."

He called what he sent to former President Obama, Hillary Clinton, Robert De Niro and others "hoax, decoy devices" that were “not ever meant to work.”

None of the recipients were hurt but the packages could get Sayoc a life sentence when he is sentenced in September.

“I was not in right state of mind,” Sayoc said in a second letter to the judge.

“I was overwhelmed, high anxiety, very nervous condition” when he answered affirmatively about knowing the risks posed by his actions.

“The devices would never explode or worked,” Sayoc said.

“The fireworks was a sparkler and not capable to explode.”

It wasn’t immediately clear how Judge Rakoff would handle Sayoc’s assertions but ordered the parties into court, writing that he found it “necessary to hold an in person hearing to address these issues.”

The Minnesota registered nurse sentenced to six months in jail for killing someone

by Paul Walsh

A driver from Oronoco, Minn., who killed a woman in a 2016 distracted driving crash has been ordered to visit the grave of the woman as part of her sentence.

Lori J. Hoefs, 57, was sentenced Friday in Dakota County in connection with the collision in Hampton Township that killed 78-year-old Brenda K. Travis of Rochester, Minn., and seriously injured her brother, Glen Travis.

Along with making two visits to the Bear Creek Lutheran Church cemetery northeast of Grand Meadow, Minn., where Travis was buried, Hoefs was sentenced by Judge Jerome Abrams to six months in jail and put on probation for two years.

If she qualifies, Hoefs can serve part of that time on work release.

She also must perform 30 hours of community service, where she is required to speak about distracted driving, and she must attend a driving improvement clinic and pay $1,429 in fines and fees.

Hoefs was charged in June 2018 with felony counts of criminal vehicular homicide and criminal vehicular operation.

Her plea agreement called for those charges, which likely would have resulted in prison time if she were convicted, to be dismissed in exchange for admitting to the lower-level counts.

Glen Travis, who suffered rib fractures and a broken pelvis, told the Star Tribune last fall that terms of the plea deal were satisfactory to the family.

He said he didn't want the sentence to cost Hoefs her license as a registered nurse, which she has held for more than 35 years and continues to hold.

He did add, however, "We do wonder why she didn't assist" his sister at the crash scene, "but I guess she was in total shock."

Hoefs told authorities immediately after the crash that she had the phone on speakerphone but was holding it while talking to a friend as she drove west on County Road 88 into the intersection at Hwy. 56, the criminal complaint said.

She passed a sign warning her of a stop sign ahead at the intersection and drove over pavement painted with the words "STOP AHEAD," the complaint added.

Her SUV struck the passenger side of the Travises' car.

Brenda Travis received an education degree from St. Olaf College in Northfield and a master's degree from the University of Minnesota before embarking on a teaching career that lasted decades and covered several continents.

After teaching high school for two years in Morgan, Minn., Travis taught business for 32 years through the Department of Defense Overseas Dependent Schools.

In that role, she worked in Germany, Turkey, Morocco, Japan and the Philippines.

House of Horrors Parents Sentenced to Life in Prison for Torturing Children

by Minyvonne Burke

David and Louise Turpin, the California parents who beat, starved and held 12 of their children captive inside their home, were sentenced Friday to life in prison.

The husband and wife pleaded guilty in February to 14 counts each of torture, dependent adult abuse, child endangerment and false imprisonment.

During their sentencing, both cried and wiped away tears as some of their children addressed the courtroom.

The judge ruled the couple will be eligible for parole after 25 years.

"My parents took my whole life from me, now I’m taking my life back," one of the couple's daughters said.

“Life may have been bad, but it made me strong. I saw my dad change my mom, they almost changed me. I’m a fighter, I’m strong.”

Disturbing details of the abuse came to light in January 2018 after one of the daughters, who was 17 at the time, escaped their home in Perris, California, and used a cellphone taken from the house to call 911.

The girl, who officers initially thought was a child because she was so emaciated, told police that her brothers and sisters were being held by her parents and some of them were chained, investigators said.

When authorities entered the house, they found the children — aged 2 to 29 — being held in "dark and foul-smelling surroundings," authorities said.

Some were bound to their beds and furniture by chains and padlocks and many of the children told police they were "starving," according to the Riverside County Sheriff's Department.

"I love both of my parents so much," a statement read in court from another daughter said.

“God looks at the heart and I know he sees theirs. I’ve prayed often for them."

Louise Turpin read a statement in court, apologizing to her children.

"I'm sorry for everything I've done to hurt my children. I love my children so much," she said.

"I want them to know that mom and dad are going to be OK."

David Turpin was so emotional, he had his lawyer read parts of his statement.

"I never intended for any harm to come to my children … I hope the very best for my children in the future," the lawyer read.

Prosecutors said the Turpin children were given only one rationed meal a day and allowed to shower once a year. Their parents would bake pies and not let their hungry children eat them, and would buy toys but forbid the children from opening or playing with them.

The children were forced to spend most of their time in the house.

Neighbors told NBC Los Angeles last year that they knew the couple had a lot of children but weren't sure how many because "the kids didn't come out very often."

There were times the family was all out together, like on trips to Las Vegas where the Turpins renewed their vows.

Videos showed the girls in pink dresses, white tights and heels.

The boys wore dark suits with white shirts and red ties.

Kent Ripley, an Elvis impersonator who renewed the couple's vows at a Vegas chapel, said the children were always quiet and well-behaved.

Louise Turpin's sister, Teresa Robinette, said during an interview that the family gave the impression that they were "living the perfect life."

She recounted how her sister would tell her about the Vegas trips and vacations at Disneyland.

Investigators, however, painted a very different picture.

Only one of the children — a son — was allowed to leave home to attend classes at a community college but was always accompanied by his mother.

The siblings would also get in trouble for things like "playing with water" while they washed their hands. Prosecutors said the punishment ranged from being beaten and choked to being shackled to their beds with no access to the bathroom for months at a time.

One of the daughters was allegedly the victim of a lewd act by her father, prosecutors said.

Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin said in January 2018 that the abuse "started out as neglect" during the 17 years the family lived near Fort Worth, Texas, and intensified when they moved to California in 2010.

The couple's youngest child was the only one — of the 13 total — who appeared to have not been abused.

Despite the horrific torture authorities said the children endured, some of them told the courtroom Friday how much they loved their parents and said they did their best to raise them.

"I cannot describe in words what we went through growing up," one of the sons said.

"Sometimes, I still have nightmares from things that have happened. … But that is the past and this is now. I love my parents and have forgiven them."

A statement from another daughter stated:

"I want the court to know that our parents loved each other and loved each of their children. ... I believe with all my heart that our parents tried their best to raise all 13 of us and they wanted to give us a good life."

During a news conference after the sentencing, Jack Osborn, who represents seven of the adult children, said that his clients are “working very hard toward forgiveness" and said it was a "miracle" that they are thriving.

"Our clients are most of all survivors, they are not victims," he said.

Two White Women plead guilty to crimes related to New York sex cult, pyramid scheme case

by Amir Vera and Sonia Moghe

Two women who were part of an alleged pyramid scheme that involved sex trafficking and racketeering each pleaded guilty to related charges Friday in a New York federal court.

Clare Bronfman, an heiress to the Seagram's liquor fortune, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to conceal and harbor people who were not in the United States legally for financial gain and fraudulent use of identification.

Kathy Russell pleaded guilty to one charge of visa fraud.

Bronfman and Russell were indicted in March on racketeering and racketeering conspiracy charges as part of the cult-like organization known as Nxivm, founded by Keith Raniere, who also was indicted and is now in federal custody.

He faces sex trafficking and forced labor charges.

Bronfman was a member of the Nxivm executive board, according to a US Justice Department news release, and faces between 21 and 27 months in prison.

Russell is Nxivm's former bookkeeper and faces between six and 12 months in prison.

Bronfman, who will be sentenced July 25, tearfully read a statement in court during her plea hearing.

"Your honor, I was afforded a great gift by my grandfather and father. With the gift comes immense privilege, and more importantly, tremendous responsibility," Bronfman said.

"It does not come with an ability to break the law, it comes with a greater responsibility to uphold it. I failed to uphold the following laws set forth by this country, and for that I am truly remorseful."

Russell, who will be sentenced July 31, said in court that she knowingly provided visa documents with false information in order to bring a woman into the US for work.

"I know what I did was wrong and I am very sorry for the trouble that I've caused," Russell said, tearfully.

Five Nxivm members were indicted and charged last year for crimes that included identity theft, extortion, forced labor, sex trafficking, money laundering, wire fraud and obstruction of justice.

Bronfman, Russell and actress Allison Mack were among the five indicted and charged last year.

Prosecutors allege Raniere created the organization Nxivm (pronounced NEX-ium), which touted itself as a professional business providing coaching and educational services to "corporations and people of all walks of life."

The organization, prosecutors say, actually operated like a multi-level marketing pyramid scheme, and encouraged its members to continue taking pricey classes and recruiting other members in order to rise in the ranks of the organization.

The organization also acted as an umbrella for other groups like "The Source," described as a private arts academy, and the secret society DOS, which was founded in 2015 and is the subgroup where sex trafficking activities allegedly took place.

Under the sub-group DOS, prosecutors allege.

women were designated as "slaves" until successfully recruiting others, at which time they became "masters." All so-called slaves were at the service of their own masters as well as those above them in the pyramid.

The indictment claims many so-called slaves were branded on their pelvic areas with a symbol which, unbeknownst to them, incorporated Raniere's initials.

Documents describe "branding ceremonies," in which women were held down by others while naked and filmed as they were branded with a cauterizing pen.

Raniere was the only male in DOS and the leader, according to court filings.

Prosecutors believe Mack, known for her 10-season run on the television series "Smallville," was near the top of the pyramid with Raniere and "directly or implicitly required" her slaves to engage in sexual activity with Raniere.

She also allegedly received financial and other benefits from Raniere in exchange for the women's cooperation with their demands.

Mack was released from jail on $5 million bond after being indicted last week.

She pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and racketeering relating to her alleged role in a sex trafficking case.

Raniere remains in federal custody in Brooklyn.

If convicted, Raniere and Mack each face mandatory minimum sentences of 15 years imprisonment, and up to life imprisonment.

His attorney, Marc Agnifilo, had no comment on the remaining co-defendants.

Malissa Ancona was sentenced to life in prison Friday under a deal in which she pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, tampering with evidence and abandonment of a corpse in the February 2017 death of Frank Ancona Jr., the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

Ancona, who had identified himself as a KKK imperial wizard, had recently asked his wife for a divorce, according to officials and court records.

Malissa Ancona initially reported her husband missing, and a family fishing in southeast Missouri found his body near a river days later.

She later claimed her son, Paul Jinkerson Jr., shot him while he was sleeping.

Jinkerson faces the same charges as his mom, but she said Friday that he had no role in the shooting.

She said he did help clean up the crime scene and helped dump the body.

White Man Arrested With Gas Cans and Lighters at St. Patrick’s Cathedral Is a Philosophy Teacher

by Ali Watkins

Marc Lamparello’s story seemed off from the start.

It was near 8 p.m. Wednesday when Mr. Lamparello, a 37-year-old adjunct philosophy lecturer, entered St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Midtown Manhattan toting two gallons of gasoline, lighter fluid and lighters, the police said.

Stopped by ushers, he explained he was trying to take a shortcut through the iconic sanctuary to reach his vehicle, which had run out of gas, the police said.

Mr. Lamparello’s minivan, though, was not out of fuel, the police said, and a stroll through St. Patrick’s was hardly a shortcut.

Mr. Lamparello, who lives in New Jersey, was taken into custody Wednesday night for questioning, the police said, but has not been charged with any crime.

He has had prior run-ins with law enforcement and had previously been arrested in New Jersey for trespassing, the Fire Department said.

His arrest came just before Easter and two days after a devastating fire tore through the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris.

“His basic story was that he was cutting through the cathedral to get to Madison Avenue, that his car had run out of gas,” said John Miller, the Police Department’s deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism.

“We took a look at the vehicle. It was not out of gas, and at that point he was taken into custody.”

Mr. Lamparello is a doctoral candidate in philosophy at the City University of New York.

He was a 2004 graduate of Boston College and was listed as teaching courses at Brooklyn College this spring.

A philosophy academic, he had written and published his first book, “Reason and Counterpoint,” in 2016.

Mr. Lamparello’s history with the church is murky, but his work suggests at least a baseline interest in questions of religion and higher powers.

In 2016, his author biography on Amazon.com indicated he was working on a book-length project about wrestling with the existence of God.

At least one of the courses he has taught, Introduction to the Problems of Philosophy, touched on the idea of religion.

The course included “such topics as the nature and scope of knowledge, meaning and verification, the existence of God, determinism and free will, the mind-body problem, and the nature of moral judgments,” according to an online course description for Brooklyn College.

Videos circulated on social media have shown armed civilians detaining large groups of Central American families in New Mexico.

Armed civilian groups have been common on the US border for years, especially when large numbers of migrants are present. But many of the migrants crossing now are children.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has called for an investigation into pro-Trump, anti-immigrant men who have been patrolling the border, calling themselves the United Constitutional Patriots (UCP).

The ACLU in New Mexico described the group as “an armed fascist militia organization” made up of “vigilantes” and said they were working to “kidnap and detain people seeking asylum”, making illegal arrests and holding migrants at gunpoint.

Hopkins was booked into the Dona Ana county detention center in Las Cruces.

It was not known if he had an attorney.

The FBI said he was from Flora Vista, a rural community in New Mexico about 353 miles north of Sunland Park, a suburb of El Paso.

Frank Fisher, an FBI spokesman in Albuquerque, said additional information would not be released until after Hopkins appeared in federal court on Monday.

In the 2006 incident in Oregon, a sheriff’s office report said Hopkins was found at a gas station in Keno showing firearms to youth and telling them he was a police officer.

Hopkins displayed a badge that said “special agent” and had numerous medals pinned to his shirt, according to the report obtained by the Santa Fe New Mexican.

The newspaper said the court records were uncovered by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups and extremists in the US.

In a statement issued on Saturday, Mexico’s foreign ministry expressed “profound concern at the activities of intimidation and extortion of migrants on the part of militia groups on the border of New Mexico”.

“These types of practices,” it said, “can lead to the trampling of human rights of people who migrate or who solicit asylum or refuge in the United States.”